Today in History: 22 May

• In the United States, the first practical demonstration of the telephone is held in New York City by Alexander Graham Bell (1876).
• In France, the Lumière brothers hold the first public screening of motion pictures in Paris (1895).
• In Germany, Albert Einstein publishes his theory of special relativity (1905).
• In the United Kingdom, the first transatlantic radio transmission is made by Reginald Fessenden (1901).
• In the Soviet Union, the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, is launched into orbit (1957).
• In the United States, the first human heart transplant is performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard (1967).
• In China, the first high-speed train line is opened between Beijing and Shanghai (2008).
• In the United States, the first iPhone is released (2007).
• In the United Kingdom, the first commercial self-driving car is launched (2021).
• In China, the first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered doctor is created (2017).
• In the United States, the first gene-edited baby is born (2018).

1799: The Rosetta Stone is discovered by a French soldier in Egypt. The stone contains a decree by the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy V written in three languages: hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek. This discovery helped scholars to decipher hieroglyphics, which had been a mystery for centuries.

1821: The first steam-powered locomotive in the United States is built by John Stevens in Hoboken, New Jersey. The locomotive, called the "Tom Thumb," travels at a speed of 10 miles per hour.

1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone. The telephone is a device that allows people to communicate with each other over long distances by speaking into a microphone and hearing the other person's voice through a speaker.

1888: The first electric street car in the United States begins operating in Richmond, Virginia. The street car is powered by an electric motor and runs on tracks laid in the street.

1903: The Wright brothers make the first successful powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Wright brothers' plane is a biplane with two propellers powered by a gasoline engine.

1927: Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindbergh's flight takes 33 hours and 29 minutes.

1953: The first artificial heart is implanted in a human patient, Louis Washkansky, at the University of Minnesota. The heart is made of plastic and metal and is powered by an external battery.

1961: Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into space. Shepard's flight lasts 15 minutes and 22 seconds.

1969: Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the moon. Armstrong and his fellow astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, spend two and a half hours on the moon.

1977: The first space shuttle, Columbia, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The space shuttle is a reusable spacecraft that can carry astronauts and cargo into space.

1990: The World Wide Web is made publicly available by Tim Berners-Lee. The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet.

2000: The first human genome is sequenced. The human genome is the complete set of DNA instructions for building a human being.

2010: The first commercial flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner takes place. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a fuel-efficient airplane that uses carbon fiber composites in its construction.

2015: The first commercial flight of the Airbus A350 XWB takes place. The Airbus A350 XWB is a long-range, wide-body airplane that uses carbon fiber composites in its construction.

These are just a few of the many technological and scientific events that have happened on this day throughout history. Technology and science have had a profound impact on our lives, and they continue to shape the world we live in.